Literary Epiphany
Posted by miryam on 14 Feb 2007 at 10:35 pm | Tagged as: Life at UVIC
I’ve changed my mind about Heart of Darkness. I reread it for my midterm tomorrow, and I actually rather enjoyed it. It helps to know that even though the physical book I have is over 500 pages long, the actual novel is only seventy-seven.
Also, it makes rather more sense the second time, after having discussed it in class. And then, tonight, I had an epiphany. I’m not going to make you suffer through my triumphant explanation. I was just so pleased with myself. I had all this information floating around about symbols and characters and themes and historical background, but it wasn’t tying together. There was no continuity between all the facts. And then suddenly there was. All the little bits and pieces alligned and actually made sense as a whole, and I wrote a spontaneous one page essay. Yes, I’m that much of a dork.
Speaking of being a dork, I got to see Guy Gavriel Kay last night!!! He was very friendly, and a fairly good speaker, though he has an odd voice. He’s younger than I expected, and he looks like he might have walked right out of the Fionavar Tapestry (I can’t explain why, that’s just the impression I got). The Fionavar Tapestry being one of his books, for those of you who have not yet enjoyed his brilliance.
When Olivia asked which character he connected to the most, he told us that there’s a certain bearded mosaicist who swears a lot, and that’s him. If you’ve read Sailing to Sarantium and/or Lord of Emperors, you’ll get it, and if you haven’t, you should! Now I have a SIGNED copy of Ysabel (his newest novel) sitting on my bedside table burning a hole in the back of my head. I don’t know how I’m going to make it to Saturday without reading it!
I got a flower today! I’m rather happy about that, even though I’m not much into the whole Valentines thing. It’s a funny story as to why I got it, which is why I’m telling you (I’m not just gloating, really!). As a fundraiser for the choir Andrew and Devin are in, they formed two barbershop quartets (not quintets or sextets - Music Man!), and they sang Valentines all day. They’re really good, and I think it’s a lovely idea (head disappearing in the clouds…). Anyways, at the end of their song, they’re supposed to present a flower and a box of chocolates to whoever they’re singing to. But somehow they forgot to give the flower to someone. So Andrew brought it home and gave it to me. Not being particularly picky, I find the story increases the value of the flower, rather than decreasing it.
I need to go do some work now, I just felt like sharing these thoughts.
Take care, my beloved ones!
Mim